Orson Wells 1939 Radio Broadcast

After the excellent halloween evening I spent on ATS my intrest in this was rekinidled. I have, ever since I first learnt of Orson Wells broadcast, been fascinated by it and wondered if I would ever get to hear the original broadcast.

There are no doubt many that alread know this, but I found on the 'net not only details of the excellent Orson Wells' 1939 radio broadcast which caused so much chaos and is, in my humble opinion, a peice of history that everyone should hear, but also the script and the .mp3 available for download from The Mercury Theatre on the Air

Enjoy, I did.

Jack.

Thanks JAK, I know about the events surrounding the broadcast but I've never actually heard it all. Downloading it as I type this.

There are those who speculate that Well's radio broadcast was a deliberate social experiment to see how easily the public could be deceived and brought to a state of general panic.

Hey- how come we dont bring back our awesome holloween prank of last year?

Could we bring it back for the new people to see and for us to laugh at our paranoia?

That reminds me. Does ATS do anything for April fools day?

April fools you can expect someone to post about how alien ships have been seen landing all over the US and its a big conspiracy and the government is trying to keep it quiet..bla bla bla....

Cant wait!!!!!

Originally posted by dgtempe
Hey- how come we dont bring back our awesome holloween prank of last year?

Could we bring it back for the new people to see and for us to laugh at our paranoia?

thanks for giving it away

BTW great thread jak...

It is a great pleasure to be able share the good fortune I had in finding this broadcast with likeminded people.

The halloween of 2004 on which ATS played out it's own excellent War of the Worlds dramatisation was, for me sitting in the chatroom aware of the situation, an entirely fascinating evening and for which I am still indebted.

When I heard of the events surrounding Orson Wells' Mercury Theatre radio broadcast many, many years before I had an internet connection, I wondered would I ever be fortunate enough to hear the actual recording. When I found it offered for free download on the internet I could not believe how fortunate I was.

Everyone else was out for the evening so I downloaded it and spent the evening in front of my PC with all the lights off. A fantastic experience. I listened to it a number of times, sometimes while reading about the events surrounding it's initial broadcast. Then one evening my daughter, my girlfriend and myself all sat in a candlelit room and listened to it. I explained the history of the broadcast to my daughter who initially was incredulous of the story I told. After talking for a while she was as interested to hear this piece of history as I was when I first learnt of it.

One thing I have always wondered about though was the experience itself. I try to value experiences, I have a couple of extreme ones where I genuinely thought my death was imminent, sometimes for a few seconds, sometimes for a few minutes. They are not morbid, but for me are to be valued for their scarcity. Anyway you see how I value experiences and it was on halloween that ATS gave me an insight that I may well never have the opportunity to experience again. And to those who were unaware of the reality of what was being played out in front of them, I cannot understand where any anger would stem from. You were gifted an experience that you may never have again and that you may never have got anywhere else.

Once in my life have I thought I saw a UFO. I was with a number of other people and we all stared at the heavens in disbelief and the same thought in our mind. Hushed sentences were softly passed among us. Then it was realised that what we were seeing was nothing like what we had, for those all to brief seconds, imagined. Was the experience invalid? Not at all. For those few seconds such thoughts rushed through my mind as never before. It is startling not only what thoughts, but also the sheer amount.

I remember thinking that such a public display meant that this could not be denied, there was no way. I thought of how unfortunate that my Grandfather should not be alive to see such an historic event and how blessed I was to be alive at this point in history. These are memories that are not tarnished by the discovery that my primary impression of what was in front of us was incorrect, but rather they are ones that I shall always cherish, for such an opportunity is obviously rare indeed.

And so it was with that mindset I sat in the ATS chatroom on halloween of 2004 and savored every single minute of the events and social interactions that took place in front of my very eyes. I have often wanted to thank ATS for that evening and thought here was an appropiate opportunity.

It was with this mindset also that I searched and found this broadcast and I hope it brings you as much joy as it did me.

Jack

Nice.

The paranoia and panic-spreading at ATS that you speak of goes on every day. Hop into ATS chat lately and it goes something like this:

AverageJoe: Hey has anyone seen MacKiller? He's been gone for ages...

InCiTe-U: He's been banned.

Panic101: OMGWTF!! MacKiller's been banned???~!?

LeveLhedd: Check out the thread in Board Business. It's no big deal. Seems like his account got hacked, so his account has been suspended for a while.

Hysterium: OMGWTF??!?! MACKILLER'S BEEN BANNED???!?! WHY?? HE WAS SO NICE!!

MrCalm: It's not like that. Check out the thread.

Overreact_999: OMG! Why? MacKiller was cool!

Only14: I miss MacKiller.

InCiTe-U: Hey. Maybe we should protest. U2U all the mods. How dare they ban MacKiller!

Levelhedd: No, that's against ATS rules. I wouldn't do that.

JustPoppedIn: Hey all. Wassup?

Only14: Mackiller was banned.

Just PoppedIn: OMGWTF?>?? They banned MacKiller????!

etc, etc, etc, ad infinitum, ad nauseum...